The Ghana Private Road and Transport Union (GPRTU) has served notice that it will unilaterally increase transport fares by Monday, 25 October 2021, if the nuisance taxes imposed on petroleum products are not reduced.

According to the union, it will not hesitate to increase transport fares across the country to cushion its members in the wake of rising fuel prices.

The Industrial Relations Officer (IRO) at the Greater Accra Regional GPRTU, Alhaji Abass Imoro, issued this threat in an interview on the mid-day news on Accra100.5FM on Thursday, 21 October 2021.

He said transport fares may go up if the Ministry of Energy, through the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), fails to take steps to have some of the nuisance taxes reduced.

He explained that the many taxes are a contributory factor to the rising cost of petrol products in the country.

Alhaji Imoro listed some of the taxes as follow: Special Petroleum Levy (45 Pesewas on a litre of petrol), Price Stabilisation Levy (15 Pesewas), Bulk Oil and Storage Transport Margin (9 Pesewas), Sanitation levy (10 Pesewas) and Energy Recovery (30 Pesewas).

“So, as a union, we’ve made our point clear: if by Monday they reduce some of these taxes, fares will remain the same; if they fail, fares will go up,” he said.